Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that were created by someone else

Claimer: Go to my profile to view my characters

Chapter VI

When the group made it back to the Kissinger residence, they were surprised to find a FCPD squad car parked in the drive way, "Dad's home," Mark said, "That's unusual."

"So he knows then," said Matt, "Let's go see what he thinks."

Matt parked the car and the group head inside, they saw Kissinger on his cell phone. He tried to pull out his hair as he spoke into it, "What happened?... Damn... Okay, just give me a moment. My son and father's here, bye."

Officer Kissinger hung up the phone and hugged his son, "I heard what happened Mark, are you alright?"

"Yeah, but two of my Pokémon are in the hospital and one is in the morgue."

Kissinger was surprised, "Which one?"

"Magnemite."

"It's foolish of you to go out there looking for Tesla," he glanced at Ash, "But at least you didn't leave home alone."

"I always have company with me." said Ash.

Kissinger returned his attention to Mark, "Now what were you doing out looking for Tesla anyway?"

"Me and Ash were out searching for him so we can talk," said Mark, "He wanted to know if he's still alive, I personally doubted Tesla's still alive until we saw him face to face. He attacked us first and took out our Pokémon, then ran off into the forest. The rumors were true after all."

"He always hated people, no wonder he attacked you. He attacked you first, you say? Well, he must be getting more aggressive."

"Son," said Matt, "When we came in here you were on the phone, what was all that about?"

"Tesla was spotted in the city again," said Kissinger, "The police nearly had him cornered until some guy accidentally let him escape, that guy was accidentally shot by the cops as a result. Normally we get reports like this all the time but he was seen my a couple dozen people, putting Tesla back in reality."

"Son," said Matt, "This had gone on long enough, we need to end this Tesla fiasco."

"Due to Tesla's long history, we're going to need to call in the big guns. I'll see if I can persuade the mayor of that option, but I'm not sure how he will react. We'll talk about this more tonight, I gotta go Mark."

"Bye Dad."

When Officer Kissinger left, Emolga tapped Mark's head to get his attention, "Emolga?"

"No, I don't think he's going to throw you out of the house."

"I'll go talk to your dad for you at the station," said Matt, "You take care now, okay?"

"I will Grandpa, bye."

"Bye Matt." said Ash.

"Pika pika." Pikachu waved goodbye.

When Matt left, Mark slumped onto the couch and held Emolga in his arms, "You gave me quite a scare in the forest Emolga, please don't do that again."

Emolga chuckled, as if he expected that line, "Yeah," said Mark, "Remind me not to let you go Rambo again next time."

"What the plan Mark?" asked Ash.

"You think you can go to the Faraday City Library to do research on Tesla?"

"I can do that."

"Pikachu." agreed Pikachu.

"I'm gotta make sure its locked up tight," said Mark, "I'll install some locks and latches on my doors and windows so Tesla won't try to get into this house, I'm also going to call in a friend or two to help us with our situation. I'm also going to need a sign and some paint."

"Why a sign and paint?"

"You'll see Ash, you'll see."

"Okay, so where's the library?"

"We past it on the way here."

"Oh yeah, I remember now. It's not that far."

"Go there and dig up what you can, I'll do my part and make sure I get this place safe from any curious Pokémon. Just the thought on securing a house from a Pokémon, especially a small one, is just ridiculous. Well, hopefully he won't come around here anytime soon."

Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out 10 pokédollars , "Here Ash, you'll might need this for a cab."

"Thanks." said Ash.

"Don't mention it."

. . .

In the small town that borders the ocean in Unova, Cabot Richardson sits in front of his TV and flipped through the channels. Every channel he checked had nothing interesting on, and there weren't anything happening on the news. He let out a groan and shut off the TV, then sat the remote back on the coffee table.

"Axew," Cabot called out, "Where are you?"

Axew came around the corner within a few seconds, he let out a yawn as he stood in the middle of the living room, "Axew." he replied.

Though Cabot was born in Hoenn, he left home at the age of 10 to go on his Pokémon journey. Some years past when Cabot decided to settle down, just a year ago he managed to buy an apartment building and got a job at the nearby Pokémon gym. For some reason he felt fate felt a bit dull, like a knife trying to cut a sheet of paper but acted more like a saw than a blade. Living off of 15,000 pokédollars per year, and paying the rent on time, Cabot managed to stabilize his life.

He took a sip of tea as his Axew crawled onto the couch, he snuggled right beside him and hugged. Cabot scratched the back of the Tusk Pokémon's head, causing him to let out soft cooing. Somewhere within the Land of Dragons, Cabot found the Axew living in a small cave just 5 years ago. The Axew took a liking of Cabot, but Cabot didn't like him at first. So he left. But Axew followed him everywhere he went, and after what seemed to be the 35th encounter Cabot gave up and took Axew under his wing. The two had been friends ever since.

Cabot adjust his thin-rimmed glasses and turned the TV back on, then tune it back to CNN. Finally something interesting appeared, Cabot leaned forward to get a better look, "Tesla confirmed alive in Faraday City." he read the title on the bottom of the screen.

"Axew?" Axew muttered.

"The legendary Pikachu owned by the diseased Pokémon Master, Irvin Westinghouse, had been caught on film for the first time in more than 20 years. He was first thought to have past away after a few years of Irvin's death. Though rumors suggest he was still alive, he wasn't seen for many years until now."

Footage shot from someone's camera phone engulfed the screen, Cabot watched as the Pikachu in question ran out of a building. Seeing that he was surrounded, he looked around for an escape and found it, "The storm drain," Cabot chuckled, "Smart move, sp the legend of Tesla is real after all."

Cabot fumbled with the remote and changed the channel, "Ooh, this is interesting."

. . .

Officer Kissinger gripped the steering wheel of his squad car, trying to think on what to do next. Tesla had been a myth to Faraday City for 20 years, a myth he almost doubted. But now that myth was blown out of the water and become reality. Kissinger had known Irvin since he was a boy, and especially knew Tesla personally. Sometime during his childhood and adolescence, Kissinger wanted to play with Tesla. But every time he showed affection, the Mouse Pokémon simply warned him to back off by displaying some electric sparks. Now, 30 years later, Tesla attacked his son and his friends. He received the news at the police department, had Mark been injured himself he would drove straight to the hospital to meet him. At least he was okay, yet a Pokémon of his was dead. Maybe because of him?

Mark had never properly taken care of his Pokémon, instead of the required Pokémon food, he feeds him either regular food or junk food. Never had he seen Mark's Pokémon been seen in a battle, in fact he didn't recall Mark battling any other Pokémon trainer ever since he got Emolga from the Pokémon Lab. Now that he got his Pokémon injured and another killed, Kissinger started to consider releasing all of his Pokémon...

"Not a good idea," He told himself out loud, "But still... Oh why does he have to get the cute Pokémon?"

He pulled up in the parking lot of his designated police department district and parked his squad car, then head straight inside. He past several of his co-workers and some of their Pokémon along the way to his desk, they all glanced at him but paid no attention. They were too focused in their work. When he sat down at his desk, he started up his computer and got down to writing his recent report on-

"K!"

Kissinger turned and saw Trent at the edge of his office, "Kissinger," said his co-worker and old friend, "You have a moment?"

"What is it about Trent?" Kissinger asked.

"Word got around that your son was attacked by Tesla, and his Pokémon-"

"I don't want to talk about it and neither does my son, he's already in enough trouble as it is."

"Okay then, what about the recent-"

"Tesla sighting? I got the word when I was at my break. I guess I haven't wasted 20 years for nothing."

"I honestly thought he no longer exist, I've been a personal Westinghouse fan myself but I found Tesla okay. He's a bit of a loner you know."

"I knew that the hard way, I tried to hold him a few times when I was a kid. But he glared at me, even threatened to shock me. I never laid a finger on him ever since I knew him, I was upset that I never get to hold him... Am I'm still upset to this very day."

"No wonder you took this case so personally, you knew Tesla by heart."

"New him so well that what he done after Irvin's death isn't a surprise, he's a pro afterall."

Trent chuckled, "Anyway, what are you planning today?"

"Now that I have prove that Tesla's still alive, and maybe prove that the victims I interviewed were indeed attacked by Tesla, I'm planning to persuade the mayor to send out a small army to get Tesla."

Trent's jaw dropped, "What?"

"You heard me."

"Whoa, K, this may not be a-"

"My son nearly became a statistic Trent," exclaimed Kissinger, "We can't just ignore this anymore. The Meowth's out of the bag! More trainers and their Pokémon are going to get hurt for trying to hunt him down, we need to get into that forest and fish him out!"

"No other alternative?"

"You want to burn down the entire forest?"

"No, it's city property. If we're going to need to persuade the major, we gotta persuade our boss first."

"Lieutenant Kelly?"

"Yes."

"Okay then, let's go ask him."

Kissinger got up and the two officers head over to their boss' office. They found the door wide open and Lieutenant Kelly sleeping on his desk, as usual, "Sir?" Kissinger asked as he knocked on the door frame.

Lieutenant Kelly jolt before looking up, "I was just sleeping my eyes," lied Kelly as he yawned, "Wait, what are you here for?"

"We need to stop Tesla," said Kissinger, "We need to stop him once and for all."

"Wait what?"

"Tesla still exists, he's been caught on film for once in twenty years. My son confirmed it as well, he ventured out into Tesla's own forest and got attacked by him. His Emolga's injured and his Magnemite's killed."

"We've been going after Tesla for years."

"No, we weren't even putting much effort into it. Besides, he comes to us through all of the encounters in the city. We'll come to him for a change, what do you say?"

Kelly thought about it for a moment, "Going after an old Pikachu is one thing, but going into his forest to find him? You know that place is booby-trapped?"

"He attacked my son and killed one of his Pokémon, Kelly!"

"I've heard, was that how you got that idea?"

"My father."

Kelly interlocked his hands and rested his chin on them, using the desk for elbow support, "How big's the bounty now?"

"500,000 pokédollars."

"Hm, I think that bounty has increased enough. Tell you what, I'll schedule a meeting with the mayor and we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, you might wanna plan on how to catch this elusive Pokémon."

"Thank you sir."

"You feel better?" Trent ask Kissinger as they walked out of the office.

"Not until it's done," said Kissinger, "I best get back to work, I'll catch you later."

"Okay K, see you around."

. . .

Ash had no trouble finding the library, following Mark's instructions he found it without taking a wrong turn or retracing his steps. He walked inside and ask the librarian about some information on Tesla, she was a little hesitant since she saw Pikachu on his shoulder but complied. She guided Ash to a computer where he sat down and began his research.

First he dug into the newspaper archives and managed to find the earliest account of Tesla and his trainer, Irving Westinghouse. It was their first major league battle, within the old black & white photo on the front page newspaper Ash saw a young Irvin doing the peace symbol with Tesla perched on his shoulders. The color and resolution of the photo blurred most of Irvin's descriptions, but Ash can see he had dark hair and a pair of glasses. Tesla on the other hand, lit up in the photo thanks to his bright fur. The Pokémon's eye goggles made him look cute in this photo, but he didn't have a happy and cheerful face like his trainer. Instead he had a serious look with an attitude, like he's ready to become angry in a split second. However the smile made that seem unlikely.

Ash sat back and rest his head on his hands for a moment, "Even when he was our age, Tesla looked quite grumpy."

"Pikachu." agreed Pikachu.

He sat up and resumed his research, after looking through a few more newspaper archives it began to paint Tesla's background. Turns out Tesla had some run-ins with the law, he was caught by the police a few times for vandalism and arson. Irvin managed to pay the bail to them both and got him out of jail. As he got older, he stopped committing crimes on his own accord.

Ash found a few home videos of Irvin and Tesla, he and Pikachu put on a set of headphones and started to view the video. In the video, there were three bottles sitting on a platform of cinder-blocks. The video suddenly turned and showed Tesla, armed with a semi-automatic rifle. He lay on his belly, lining up the sights of the rifle and making minor adjustments. Ash felt Pikachu shift uneasily on his shoulder, but kept his focus on the video.

The angle turned back towards the bottles, this time with Tesla in the picture. After a few more seconds, Tesla fired three rapid burst shots and took out all three bottles in less than half a second, "Nice Tesla," said a country-accented voice, maybe it was Irvin, "Now take out those 5 Pidgeys. I'll scare them airborne for, once they're in the air you knock the daisies out of them, okay?."

The Pidgeys sat in the trees in the background, minding their own business. Tesla reloaded his rifle and cocked it. Now ready, Tesla gave the go ahead to begin. Irvin fired a few shots into where the Pidgeys are at, they jumped into the sky and took off into the air. Once all 5 Pidgeys were completely airborne, they dropped like flies when 5 rapid-fire burst sounded, "Nice shot, Tesla!"

Tesla let out a small, yet pleased smile before reloading the gun.

Seeing enough, Ash closed the video, "So he had killed Pokémon before, I'm beginning to feel uneasy about all this."

"Pikachu." Pikachu shared his feelings as well.

Ash began searching Irvin's own records. He discovered Irvin was born and raised in Faraday City, he grew up in a middle class family. His father had died when he was 2, and his mother had been taking care of him throughout his childhood. He met Tesla when he was only 14, it wasn't clear how the two bonded. Weeks later, they met Matt Kissinger. Ash was surprised to find out that it was Matt who gave Tesla his name, not to mention gave him his signature eye goggles. Turns out Tesla was near-sided, he might not had much of a life if his eyesight wasn't corrected.

Several months later, Irvin had a accident. His right hand had been violently amputated, according to him it was from working on his car. Just a few days later, Irvin Westinghouse left home to start his journey. Ash went back the photos he saw and checked Irvin's right hand, every available photo showed Irvin had a humanoid-robotic hand. He got a better view from older photos, which showed the detailed mechanics of Irvin's cybernetic arm.

Interesting. Ash thought.

Just twenty years ago, Irvin died. He slumped over the wheel passed out, Matt managed to prevent a bad crash and quickly got him to the hospital. Tesla was taken straight home once Irvin was in the hospital, the newspaper report stated he didn't struggle. The cause of death was revealed to be a "silent" heart attack. Normally a regular heart attack would show early symptoms, the classic symptoms are gastric problems and pain in the left shoulder. Irvin got no warning, since the pain receptors in his heart were already dead. And so died instantly.

"Died at the age of 86," Ash said as he skimmed through the news article again, "Since he got Tesla at an early age, the Pikachu must be really old. But... how old?"

"Pikachu?" Pikachu showed his curiosity, seemingly wanting to know more as much as Ash.

He searched for any records of Tesla's past, but found none. All there was that Tesla had showed up out of the blue at the Faraday City Pokémon Laboratory, just a week before he met Irvin. Ash didn't plan on visiting the lab, the people who took Tesla in were all gone.

. . .

"So you gotta be at my house around noon tomorrow," said Mark, "Yes Carley, around that time... No, it's not a date... I'm going to have some other friends over... It's important... Okay, talk to you later. Bye."

Mark hanged up and dialed another number, "Henry, this is Mark... I'm doing fine pal. Look, remember that favor you owe me... I'm calling it in, I need to borrow your Raichu... No, we're going Pokémon hunting. You know Tesla, we're going after him... Okay you can come, but make sure you bring Raichu. Be at my house around noon tomorrow... Bye."

Emolga nibbled on some popcorn as Mark pocketed his phone, "Emolga, I need you to come with me. I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone here after what happened."

"Emolga," agreed Emolga, then jumped to his feet, "Emo Emolga!"

Emolga hopped onto Mark's shoulders and they left the house. Mark got into his small car: a used pickup truck whose body was badly rusting, and went to the nearby hardware store. He bought a small yellow, red, and black paint can; some brushes; a can of glue; and some planks of cedar wood. With all the supplies in hand, he stashed it all in the back of the pickup truck and drove home.

Once he got back, he got out his his dad's miter saw began to cut the boards in the correct length. With all the boards cut in the correct length, he carefully lined up 3 planks of wood in parallel to make a square, then glued them into one huge plank of wood. He repeated the process to the other boards and got 6 squares each. Next he got out some small half a centimeter long screws and a cordless drill, then installed a couple of wooden braces on the back of each square. Finally he glued and screwed on the post on each back of the squares, completing the signs. After a little bit of sanding, he got to work and painted them. First he painted: WARNING: PIKACHU TERRITORY in big red letters on one sign, next he painted an accurate picture of a Pikachu on another sign and wrote DANGER in big red letters above that. He made the picture of the Pikachu look like he's going to pounce, and also painted angry eyes and a frown. The final sign was a simple lightning bolt. He repeated making the signs on the last three blank ones before laying them out to dry.

Mark went back into the house and head back into his bedroom, he dug around his closet and pulled out a small case. He opened it up and revealed a 6mm bolt-action varmint rifle. He had bought his rifle online about a few years ago because he wanted one, his dad helped him figuring it out how it works and he figured out the rest. He hadn't shot any living thing with it, just bottles and paper targets. It was now time to use it for a more "useful" purpose.

Mark pulled it out, assembled it, then oiled the inside of the barrel. After checking everything is working, Mark opened a drawer and pulled out a silencer. If he ever fired this in the woods, he didn't want the sound to startle anybody into calling the cops. Even better, Tesla might not know where the bullets are coming from if he missed. The thought of shooting at a Pokémon was bitter and sickening as it feels, but he's not going out there unprotected. He picked up the silencer and screwed it onto the barrel of the rifle, once it was screwed in on the way Mark installed a precision scope. He checked the sights and made sure it was working, sure enough it seemed to be working. Finally, Mark clipped on the gun sling and grabbed some 6mm ammo clips and loaded it into the gun, then pocketed the rest.

He strapped the gun on his back with its sling and head back downstairs to check on the signs, they were quite dry and ready now. Mark picked up the signs and stashed it into the back of his pickup truck. Now just one more thing to do for today, Where is Emolga? Mark thought when he noticed he wasn't following him.

Mark went back into the living room and found him sleeping on the couch, his lips were covered in chocolate stains, "Emolga!" called out Mark.

Emolga stirred and sat up, "Emolga?" he called.

"Come on," said Mark, "We just have to do one more thing."

Emolga groaned as he hopped onto his trainer's shoulder, Mark left the house and hopped back into his truck. He drove down the road and made a detour onto the dirt road, approaching Tesla's forest. Emolga figured it all out and immediately started shivering in fear, "Emolga," said Mark, "I need you to keep an eye out for Tesla while I put these signs up, okay?"

His Pokémon reluctantly nodded, "Baby." Mark grumbled as he got out of the truck.

Emolga hopped onto the roof as Mark grabbed 3 of the signs, then walked out to the entrance of the forest. With a rubber mallet, he hammered the signs into the soil just next to the road, near the signs that the city had placed. The sign with the Pikachu on it goes on the right awhile the other two go on the left. He constantly looked over his shoulder and into the forest as he installed the sign, remembering all to well that Tesla doesn't like trespassers. It took him 3 minutes to install the signs, once finished he rushed back to his truck where Emolga quickly followed him back inside, "Now the other entrance," said Mark, "Then we go home."

"Emolgaaa." Emolga whined.

"Shut it, Emolga."

TO BE CONTINUED...